August 30, 2013 Coats Museum NewsThe month is November of 1942 and the Harnett County farm agent reported Coats baby beef raisers had made profits. Jimmie Barnes. Lamas Denning, Hyson Denning, James Grimes, Rupert Honeycutt and Earl Ryals were six of nine boys showing a profit. Mrs. B.T. (Florence) Barnes of Coats had died. She was the daughter of the late Ben F. and Mary Alice Johnson. Surviving her were her husband Berle T. and son Howard, both Coats merchants. John Lewis, Joseph M., and Jonah C. Johnson were her brothers. Nolie J. Johnson and Mary J. Dixon were her sisters. Dorothy and Allie Mae Barnes were her two granddaughters (Harnett County News November 5, 1942).I also know that Mrs. Florence J. Barnes was a banjo player and that Mark Valsame and his siblings have loaned their great-grandmother’s banjo to be on display in our mini-parlor in our exhibit hall. The November 12, 1942 issue of the same paper recorded that Andrew Harvey Rambeau, Fred Madison Owen, Max O. Ivey, Bennie Thomas Mangum, Jesse Lee Adcock, Thomas Ralph Gilbert, Herndon Lee Wells, Edward Green Pleasant, James Wilburn Dupree, and William James Washington of the Angier area and James Edward Parrish of Coats were among the Harnett men summoned by the Draft Board for induction.Stamp#27 in the sugar ration book was good for 1 pound of coffee. No child under 15 could get a ration book and it was from the coupons in those ration books that coffee could be purchased. Only enough coffee could be obtained for one cup a day (Harnett County News December 3, 1942). War issues continuously dominated the news. Now the people would have their pocket change affected by the war. Zinc coated steel pennies were replaced by copper pennies (Harnett County News December 17, 1942).Mr. and Mrs. W.E. Nichols of Coats celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary with a reception (Harnett County News December 31, 1942). Question—if Mr. Nichols was the railroad agent and manager of the Express and Telegraph in 1914 and in 1916, was he married to the former Eva Smith at that time?Finding newspapers that covered Coats news for 1943-44 was almost impossible. The clouds of WWII blocked much of the local events of those years. The shortage of paper and the absence of school yearbooks limit the ability to revisit that era in the Coats Museum News. Other sources had to be found. By using the 1942 Coats High School yearbook, the students who were juniors in 1942 would be the class of 1943. The following students appeared as juniors in 1942: Helen Byrd, Elizabeth Hardee, Ernestine Wood, Rachel Altman, Ruth Grimes, Audrey Stewart, Joyce Johnson, Obie Fish, Harold Wood, Kathyrn Upchurch, Mary Harmon, Jimmy Barnes, Mack Parrish, Carl Whittington, Billy Gunter, Wadeford Coats, Zeb Stewart, Josephine Ennis, Berlon Parrish, Marva Lee Parrish, Wanda Ennis, Betty Jean Hayes, Dorothy Sorrell, Christine Grimes, Mildred Pope, Bessie Lena Denning, Shirley Hayes, Mayzelle Cobb, Rosalie Whittington, Brookie Sorrell, Clydia Strickland, Audrey Dorman, Earl Jones, Theron Miller, Braston Norris, Marie Clark, Pauline Ivey, Hyson Denning, Laverne Stewart, Vada Stephenson, and Gloria Roycroft. Miss Virginia Senter was advisor.Those who were pictured in the Glee Club were Vivian Denning, Margaret Miller, Dorothy Sorrell, Rachel Tripp, Brookie Sorrell, Wanda Ennis, Clara Belle Sorrell, Ruby Turner, Doris Byrd, Earnestine Byrd, Velma Sorrell, Rosalie Whittington, Eva Wright, Joyce Capps, Elizabeth Hardee, Marva Lee Parrish, Audrey Stewart, Betty Jean Williams, Azeleen McLamb, Shirley Hayes, Betty Jean Hayes, Mayzelle Cobb and Peggy Butler.In 1942, there was no FHA for girls and, hence, it is concluded that there was not one in 1943.There was a Future Farmers of America organization and the officers for 1942 were Lamas Denning, Jimmy Barnes, Edward Pope, Zeb Stewart, and Hyson Denning (Coats School Black and Gold 1942 Yearbook).Hazel Pope Tart was a graduate of the Coats High School Class of 1944. Hazel wrote her following memories of her school years at Coats: I was a graduate of the Class of 1944 at Coats. I am the fourth daughter of Joseph Benjamin Pope and Leva Johnson Pope. I attended for all eleven years at Coats, an eight month school. The basement of the school had grades 1-3 taught there. There was only one building at that time. Most students carried lunch and milk to school. We did have a soup kitchen on our basement floor. Mrs. Roycroft, the druggist’s wife, made soup every day. It smelled so good. One cup of soup was five cents and she also had cinnamon buns for the same amount.Mr. Owen Odum was the principal. I remember I was so happy to be with other children. I would move from one table to another so I could be with all of them. My father and mother were farmers and we lived on a big farm on the top of a hill. We didn’t have any neighbors that were near. The only girl that I played with was Agnes Dixon (Hall).My first bus driver was Herbert L. Johnson. My second grade teacher was Rosa Edwards. She would read stories and would act them out. She was always having fun with us. She was a good teacher. Willie Horton was my third grade teacher. In her class I was a tulip. My dress was green crepe paper and my hat was made of pink crepe with a green top. We sang “Tip Toe through the Tulips” at the bottom of the hill just off Highway #27. It was like an outdoor theater. We also had a May Day Pole Dance. It was very pretty and was done on the first day of May for several years, until we had an auditorium.Edison Johnson was my bus driver and in the fourth grade Mrs. Nancy “Nan” Williams was my teacher. She would give us a break in the afternoon and read us a chapter in Heidi which we all enjoyed. If she thought it was going to be real cold weather, she would tell us to sweeten our milk. She would put it outside the window and it would freeze. This made good ice cream for lunch.Ada Burt was my fifth grade teacher. She liked math and taught math many ways. Mrs. Highfill was my sixth grade teacher. She really liked history. We had to study ancient history. I didn’t think we would ever get out of the Stone Age. Mrs. Snipes was the seventh grade teacher. The first day she said, “You will diagram sentences today and you will diagram sentences the day you leave my class.”In the eight through the eleventh grades, most of our subjects were picked out for us. We would take subjects that were required for that year. Our freshmen year in 1941, Mr. Jerome was school principal with 62 freshmen students. My home room teacher was Ruth Summers (Hazel Pope Tart-2004).Christine Parrish and many of us museum volunteers had spent countless hours in 2000-2002 at various museums and in the Daily Record Library from 2003-2005 doing history research on Coats. We are so sad to report that Christine died last week. Our hours spent with her in the Kiwanis Club and at the museum have made us better volunteers. Her contributions to Coats cannot be erased.Thank you to those who gave honorariums to the Coats Museum Building Fund for the birthdays of JoAnne Hairr and Juanita Hudson and the anniversary of Barbara and Norfleet Gardner. Thanks to Charlotte Ennis Parks and Miriam Ennis Byrd for their generous donation to honor their late parents’, Tom and Hettie Mae Ennis, wedding anniversary. The estate has also given many artifacts used on the Festus Ennis farm. Thank you to Stewart Akerman for specifying the museum as a recipient of memorials to his mom, Christine Akerman Parrish.